Pax Demonica (13 page)

“She was groggy, you know? Drugged up. But she told me this stuff—the stuff about you, I mean. I already knew about the hunting. She’s been training me since I was a kid. And she told me to find you.” Her shoulders rose and fell. Then she lifted her head and met my eyes. “She told me I had to, because you’re the only family I have left. Please,” she added. “You have to believe me. I don’t have any place else to go.”

“So,
do
you believe her?”
Stuart asked, parroting the question he’d asked me more than an hour ago.

“Do you?” I asked.

We were in the hall—well away from the closed door so that we couldn’t be overheard. And, of course, the simple fact that I had left Allie in that room with Eliza went a long way to answering Stuart’s question.

He reached out and stroked my hair, but he didn’t answer me. I knew why. The answer affected all of us, but I was the one who had to make the first decision as to whether or not to trust her.

From somewhere behind us, I heard the pat of footsteps. I turned, intending to tell Allie to stay in the room with Eliza. But it wasn’t Allie approaching—it was Mrs. Micari.

“
Signora
,” I said. “Good afternoon.”

She smiled, but I thought it was a little too wide and a little too bright. “You would like the afternoon snacks? Wine for the parents? Or perhaps coffee? And the biscotti for the younger ones? I serve downstairs now. Please, come and sit with me. Tell me about your day. You have met Eliza, no? I saw you come in with her.”

“We did,” I said. “How well do you know her?”

Mrs. Micari laughed. “Not at all. But I cannot help but feel like a grandmother to one so young who travels alone. Please, come. I will serve in ten minutes?”

I hesitated, then nodded. I’m not sure why I was reluctant. All I knew was that I wanted answers, and I wouldn’t be getting them over wine and biscotti. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m sure we’d all love some.”

She beamed at me, then hurried back downstairs. I watched her go, then shrugged at Stuart. “I don’t know about you, but I could use some wine.”

“I bet you could,” he said gently. He said nothing after that. I knew he wasn’t going to press. But I also knew that he wanted an answer.

“Yes,” I finally said. “Yes, I believe her. The heart of it, anyway.”

His eyes narrowed, and I saw the wheels turning. Stuart’s an attorney, and though he may not deal with criminals, he understands deception. “She’s evading,” he said. “At least a little bit.”

“A little bit?” I countered. “She hasn’t addressed the big questions at all. How she came to be here. How exactly she ended up in my B&B. And why didn’t she talk to me right off the bat?

“You believe her,” Stuart said. “But you don’t trust her.”

I thought about what Eric said—
don’t trust anyone
.

“I want to,” I admitted. “But I don’t.”

“You need to ask her the hard questions, Kate.” He reached out and curled a lock of my hair around his finger, his eyes never leaving mine. “Do you want me to take Allie out? Give you the chance to talk to Eliza alone?”

I considered it for a moment, then shook my head. “No. This is about all of us.” And, honestly, it was about Eric, too. But I couldn’t go there.

I sighed then leaned in and brushed a kiss over his lips. “I’m sorry,” I said.

His eyes were soft, but knowing. “What for?”

“For the things in my head,” I said, drawing a breath as I hoped not to drown in these marital waters. I tilted my head down and spoke to the floor. “For not knowing in my heart that you’re strong enough to deal with this. For not believing that we can be a team in this new life I’ve dumped all over us.”

I licked my lips, then forced myself to meet his eyes. “I’ve been pissed, Stuart. Maybe I haven’t shown it. Or maybe you’ve just been giving me space. But there’s been this anger bubbling underneath.”

He stayed silent, but he didn’t look angry himself. He didn’t even look hurt. Instead, he looked both attentive and understanding, and that gave me the strength to go on.

“It broke me when you left, and part of the reason Allie and I were coming here was to heal. And then when you showed up at the house—”

“I messed up your plans.”

“Yes. No.” I waved a hand as if that would somehow wipe the confusion away. “Both, honestly. It was a miracle that you came back, and I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything. But it didn’t erase the hurt. And it hasn’t been that long, and I’m still processing. And that’s why—” I sucked in a long, deep breath. “That’s why I’ve kept you out of the loop. All the stuff that’s happened so far—the demon-y stuff, I mean—I kept you out because I wasn’t sure I wanted you in at all.”

His expression was unreadable. This was the face of the attorney. The negotiator. It was a face he rarely wore with me, and I shifted uncomfortably, wishing I knew what he was thinking, and fearing the worst.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” he said gently. “I gave you reason not to trust me.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You did. But I’m not innocent, either. I waited way too long to tell you the truth. I should have told you everything when that first demon crashed through the window.”

“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe we should forget about blame and just move forward.”

I nodded. “I’d like that. No,” I corrected. “I
want
that.”

“Do you? Because you said you
weren’t
sure you wanted me in the loop. Does that mean you’re sure now?”

I started to say yes, then forced myself to stop. “Do you want my honest answer?”

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Kate.”

“Then the answer is that I don’t know. I want to be sure,” I added quickly. “I want us to be a team. I really do. But I’m afraid it’s never going to—”

“To be the way it was with Eric.”

“I know that sounds horrible,” I said. “But yeah.”

“It doesn’t have to be the same. And how could it? You two hunted together for years. I can barely throw a knife. But we can find our own rhythm, Kate. Hell, we
need
to find our own rhythm. Do you think I want to be Eric’s clone?” he asked, his voice dripping with irony.

“I’m going to go with no,” I said. I rose up on my toes to kiss him again. “And that’s a good thing.”

“Is it?”

I heard the uncertainty in his voice, and it made my heart twist. “It is,” I said. “I loved him—I still love him. You know that. But that doesn’t mean I love you less.”

“Just different.”

“Please, Stuart. You know how hard it is.”

“I do,” he said. “Nothing messes people up more than family.” His mouth curved into a wry grin. “Except maybe love.”

I laughed. “Isn’t that the truth?”

He glanced pointedly toward the closed door to our bedroom, and I understood that we were shifting our conversation. “I’m sorry about your aunt. About your parents.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said as I moved into Stuart’s open arms, my eyes closed tight to ward off the threatening tears. “I never knew them. They never existed to me. This doesn’t really change anything.”

Except that was a lie. It changed everything . . . and we both knew it.

Chapter 11

“W
ait, wait,”
Eliza was saying as we walked back into the room. “Show me again.”

Allie stood in the middle of the room wearing my favorite leather jacket. As far as I could tell, neither girl had noticed our return. Instead, Eliza was focused on Allie and Allie was wrapped up in her demonstration.

She had her arm up, but now she extended it quickly, causing the stiletto that Eric had once given me to slide out from under the interior cuff. “Isn’t it cool? Mom rigged it up, but there’s a jacket in one of the stores down the street, and I’m sure I can do the same thing if—
Mom
.”

“You can do the same thing if . . .?” I prompted with my brows raised. “Since when did you learn to sew?”

She dragged her teeth across her lower lip. “I could probably learn. Or you could do it for me. I mean, it’s
so
handy. And a Demon Hunter needs the proper tools, right? Just like I can’t do geometry without a protractor or chemistry without the periodic table.”

I felt my lips twitch, but managed not to smile.

“It really is cool, Mrs. Connor,” Eliza said.

“Kate,” I said. “I may be old enough to be your mom, but cousins call each other by their first names.”

“You believe me,” she said, her body visibly relaxing.

“I guess I do. But there are still things I need to know.” I nodded toward the bed. “Sit.”.

She complied and I turned to Allie. “Well?”

Her brow furrowed. “Um . . . what?”

“How about you? Do you believe her?”

She cocked her head, looking between me and Eliza. “Is this like a test?”

“Maybe.”

She rolled her eyes, but stood straight. “Fine. Okay. Yeah, I believe her.” She looked from me to Eliza. “Except . . . ” She trailed off with a shrug, then turned back to me.

“Except what?” Eliza said, before I had the chance to. On the far side of the room, Stuart settled into the pretty, upholstered arm chair, his eyes on Allie.

“Except it doesn’t all quite fit,” Allie said. When neither Eliza nor I said anything, she continued. “I mean, we’re in Rome. It’s not like we live here. So how’d you find us? It couldn’t be a coincidence, right, Mom?” At my nod, she continued. “And you said you were looking for us—for Mom—and you got here before us. But then you didn’t say anything once we arrived? You didn’t even tell Mrs. Micari that you wanted to meet us. So, I mean, what’s up with that?”

She turned back to me. “And, well, like that. It’s all just a little off.”

“She’s right,” I said, looking at Eliza. “And just so we’re clear, I
do
believe you. You can’t manufacture a family resemblance like the one we have. We’re related. But believing you and trusting you are two different things. And we’re not quite to trust yet.”

“You left me alone with Allie,” she said with the kind of teenage defiance I was becoming more and more familiar with as Allie grew older.

“Don’t make me regret that,” I said sharply. Then I softened my tone to add, “And you and I both know that there are all kinds of trust. If you’d wanted either of us dead, you’ve had plenty of time to do it. Hell, that demon in the alley behind the restaurant would have done it for you.”

“Maybe I’m working with him,” she said. “Maybe he and I had it all planned out so that I could gain your trust.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. I moved to the bed and sat beside her, my body turned slightly so that I could face her. It gave me a good view of Stuart, too, and I could see the irritation on his face. He hadn’t yet heard about the old man in the alley, and I added that to my mental list of things to come clean about.

Right now, though, my focus was on the girl. “Do you want to tell us the rest? Or do you want to nurse hurt feelings because I’m not wrapping my arms around you and swearing that everything you say is golden?”

“I called Father Donnelly,” she said, looking at her hands in her lap.

She spoke softly. Even so, the words hit me with the force of a slap. “He
knew
? He’s known I’m related to your mom?”

“No!” The word came out so fast and so harsh that I believed her. “At least—at least, I don’t think he knew.”

Father Donnelly was one of the priests who worked inside of
Forza
. He was, in fact, the priest most likely to take over after Father Corletti retired, and that was not a day that I was looking forward to.

It was hard for me not to trust a priest, but Father Donnelly rubbed me the wrong way, and he always had. It had only gotten worse since I learned that he was the
alimentatore
who worked with Eric’s parents. The man within
Forza
who helped trap a demon inside Eric with the hope that they would be creating a Hunter with unique skills and insight.

To say that little plan went horribly wrong would be an understatement. And no matter how much Father Donnelly’s heart might have been in the right place, there was no getting around the fact that his reckless Frankenstein games with the man who would later be my husband also resulted in the death of my parents. Because it was Amanda and Todd who had gone after Eric’s parents in an aborted attempt to stop the ceremony. And when it was all over, both Eric and I had been orphaned.

So, no. I was not a Father Donnelly fan. And right then, I couldn’t help but wonder what he had told Eliza—and why.

“Just spit it out,” Allie said to Eliza, though her eyes were on me.

“It’s just that I’d met him before. I told you that Mom trained me. And even though she was rogue, she’d talked with
Forza
about working with them. So after Mom died, I called him. I told him what I’d learned when I went through Mom’s stuff. And I told him that she said I needed to find you.”

“Find me? All that, and she didn’t know where I was?”

“She probably did, but I couldn’t find it anywhere,” Eliza said. “Father Donnelly told me that you lived in San Diablo, but that you were coming to Rome and where you’d be staying. That’s all.” Her lower lip trembled. “This all just happened, Kate. I’ve been—well, I’ve been a little messed up, you know?”